NEWCASTLE Eagles boss Fab Flournoy has called upon the BBL to scrap the two-legged system used for the play-offs.

Flournoy’s men travel to Guildford Heat this afternoon hoping to book their place in the play-off semi-finals, where the likely opponents will be the winner of the Plymouth Raiders v Glasgow Rocks quarter-final.

Today’s encounter will be the second of two legs with the Eagles looking to hold on to/overturn their first leg victory/defeat at Sport Central on Friday nght.

However, it is the two-legged set-up which has drawn the ire of Flournoy who believes it does not reward the hard work put in by those, like Newcastle, who finish higher up the league.

Back in the day the play-off quarter-finals were decided on a seeding system.

The matches would be played as a one-off, with the team who had finished higher in the BBL given the home court advantage.

The four winners would then go to Birmingham for the finals weekend, where both the semis and the final would be contested over one weekend.

However, two years ago, the format was tinkered with.

The semi-finals were stripped from the finals weekend to be played as a two-legged home and away affair, with the Birmingham extravaganza being held on one day just to accommodate the final.

The quarter-final set remained untouched, but that was until last year when the BBL decided to make that two-legged as well.

The format has stayed in place for 2012 and Flournoy feels his BBLtitle-winning Eagles have not been given the advantage their top spot would have heralded them before.

He said: “I feel both the quarter and semi finals should be decided on a three-game series instead of the two-legged system in place now.

“The team which finishes higher up the BBL has the first game at home, then they go away in the second and if a third game is needed they would have the decider at home because of finishing above their opponent in the league.

“To decide a basketball match over two games by points difference is not right in this sport. That is for football not basketball.

“It makes no sense at all to have this in place. You work hard throughout the league season and you finish as high as you possibly can but if you make it into the top four (of the BBL table) you do not gain a reward.

“That is not how it should work in basketball. Coaches adjust by the game not points. It is impossible to play a game if you have to chase points from the start.

“If you are about to play a game knowing you have to make up a 20-point difference because of what happened in the last fixture, it is hard to prepare for it.”

Given the fact Eagles owner Paul Blake is the current chairman of the BBL, could he not reform the system accordingly? Not so, says Flournoy.

He added: “Paul is the chairman but the decision to keep or change this system lies with all the team owners in the BBL. There are those who want to remove the two-legged aggregate system but also those who do not.

“Some of those who do not may not keep it because they like it but do so for other reasons.

“Three-game series may be the logical option but a lot of teams do not own their venues and they would not be able to have a suitable date from the venue owners to stage a third game should a series require one.